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[ruggedtoast]

Yumiko leans forward, scrutinising me quizzically, her pen hovering motionless over her note pad.

"Is that... American English?" She asks, strongly stressing AMERICAN in case Im not up to understanding the meaning. Some of the other students nod inquiringly in a silent show of support for Yumiko .

"Well, Yumiko, Im actually not sure" I say. In fact as I believe you know full well. Im not American.

Kiyoko opens her smart new electronic dictionary that she purchased from Bic camera the other day with half her husbands tri yearly bonus. Like most of these infernal machines it has produced some real gems over the last hour, "tuna" is, for example, a "Mexican Fish" and is quite clearly not found in Japanese waters like I said. Nor will it ever be found in sashimi as I explained, except maybe in some ghastly gaijin restaurant in Kabukicho.

I watch helplessly as they all write down "Tuna = Mexican Fish." In their notepads. (I wont go into details about the conversation I had with the history student who was telling me , with the aid of her NOVA Usagi limited edition machine, about how Henry the III instituted the famous "Irregularity Tax that was the predominant mode of his government collecting the hated "semenshys" from the populace.

R-E-S-I-T another student types into his dictionary. The class wait expectantly, silently.

"British English (I can almost hear a slight groan from the back), to resit or retake an exam that s/o has failed. Ah!" He perks up. "American English. Re-test or Make Up exam!"

Theres a sigh of relief from the class who all immediately write down "Make up" on their note pads, one or two score through "resit" that theyd inadvertently written before they realised it was some deviant version of proper English.

Everyone that is apart from Rie, anglophile Rie, whos been to England so many times shes started to like rain, flat beer and saturday night fighting. For Rie, you go to work on the Tube, normal people live in "flats" and if possible you should go on "holiday" twice a year. Rie hangs on my every word, confuses other students by misusing British regional vocabulary shes heard and attempts to emulate my accent in a very disturbing way, she also talks endlessly about england while staring at me disconcertingly and quite frankly, scares the pants, sorry, trousers off me.

"Look, if I liked England so much Id be there now wouldnt I?" I want to shout at her sometimes.

Takeshi is sitting in the corner and staring at me blankly, he has written nothing and dosnt know whats going on anyway, largely because he cant understand anything I say at all.

"I cant understand your English" He interjects , as he in fact does , randomly and from time to time.

"Can anyone name the capital of Holland, or even tell me what language they speak in Holland, or even where Holland is then, roughly?" I soldier on.

[Lucy Snow]

Then there's Natsuko, who, for some reason, is taking my beginning English class. I think she's there to test my endurance and patience.

The textbook shows a picture of a thermometer, with degrees is Fahrenheit on one side and Celsius on the other.

"Excuse me teacher, isn't it really called "centigrade."

"Nope. Watch any BBC or CNN weather forecast, and they always use the word "Celsius."

"I think you're wrong, teacher."

Another page in the book has a diagram of a typical suburban Western home. We're going over the names of the different rooms.

"Excuse me teacher, isn't that room at the top of the house called a "loft?"

"Not in American English. In American English it's called an "attic."

"I think you're wrong, teacher."

"Since I am American, Natsuko, I think I'm in a position to know."

The other students looked confused and uncomfortable. At the break, I pull Natsuko aside and tell her that perhaps she would be happier in a more advanced class.

"But this is the only class that fits in my schedule."

[JimDunlop2]

Hmm... That's really tough. I can totally see it happening but I've never had a class like that before. What I think it comes down to is a very serious trust issue. The students obviously don't trust your judgement and skills as an English teacher. Instead, they believe they know better than you, and when they don't they put more trust into their electronic translators than into their teacher.

If I were in such a situation, my first goal would be to try and develop a good working relationship with the students -- demonstrate to them that I actually know what I'm talking about and that I probably have a pretty good clue when it comes to the English language, not just because I grew up speaking it, but because I have related formal education in that area as well.

Then, I would find a paragraph of text (any text will do), zip on over to Altavista's Babelfish, run the puppy through the handy-dandy translation from English to Japanese.... Print it out, and hand out copies to the students. Ask them what they think, and whether the text is written in proper Japanese. I can almost guarantee you'll get some real doozies in the translation. When you've illustrated that the text you've handed out serious lacks any resemblence to what Japanese SHOULD look like, explain to them that it's been translated from English using an electronic translator much like the ones they are using... The lesson to be learned should be blatantly obvious by then, but in case it isn't, feel free to belabour the point at whim...

Another example which could work well -- (I've actually done this in one of my classes).... Get yourself a Japanese product containing some of the NASTIEST Engrish you can find.... I mean something that has some SERIOUS English mistakes in it. Copy the text on the board, and proceed to correct the spelling, grammar and everything else that may be wrong with it. After you've done this, explain to your students the fact that in a recent international study of English ability in Asian countries, Japan came in dead last in a list of about 32.

I wouldn't outright come out and call them down, but I would make it obvious to them that their teacher will help them learn this stuff, and if they choose to blaze their own path, their English will be no better than what's on the air-freshener package in the 100-yen shop.

Good luck! Sounds like you got quite a handful there.

[Brooks]

there definitely is a preference for American English in Japan.
Some students and teachers find British English harder to understand.
But they find Australian English to be the toughest of all, due to its pronunciation.

Brooks

[PAULH]

[kamome]

I think there IS a definite preference for American English. And not just vocabulary...................

I'm English and whenever I say the word "can't" my students look at me as though they've never heard the word before. They then try to repeat it back to me but instead of saying "can't" they say the rudest word in the English language connected with female anatomy........EVERY time. I have to affect an American accent or write down the word before they know what the hell I'm talking about.

Like the original poster said it's like they look at non-American vocab/pronunciation as somehow 'wrong'. Try reminding them that ENGlish comes from ENGland.......................

Of course it doesn't really matter in the great scheme of things but whenever I go back to England my friends all snigger because I'm using Americanisms.......they think I'm being pretentious but it's now automatic after over 4 years of dealing with puzzled Japanese students double taking when I say "flat" or "tap".

[Brooks]

personally I don`t care where a teacher is from, as long as he or she is qualified.
But my boss does.
And my school has tended to hire Americans.
I am not just a teacher but something like a cultural ambassador.
One administrator told me that I need to teach English as well as culture.
Lots of students from my school want to go abroad,and the place they want to go to is the United States, first and foremost.
And the exchange students that come tend to be from the US as well.
But I do have some students who lived in England, so they probably would prefer to have a teacher from Britain.
I have only worked in Tokyo, but this is my experience.

My girlfriend has taught in Osaka for some time and she mentioned that some teachers were hard to understand. One was from Texas and he had quite an accent, and a few teachers from Scotland too. The teachers had to change the way they spoke in order to be understood.

[fion]

Oh, love this thread, recognize a lot of it.

Firstly I can't always blame conversation school students if they trust their dictionary first, they have many years' experience of 'teachers' who wouldn't recognise a second conditional if served on a plate with beer, and some of those students do have a better theoretical knowledge of the language than those of us who merely speak it.

Further, (sorry, I've been teaching too many TOEFL writing classes) I can't agree that ENGlish comes from ENGland (I'm Scottish) but as for American English a lot of it is plain illiterate and I tell the students so. There may be a preference for American English in Japan, but I've only come across that kind of discrimination in companies I wouldn't want to work for anyway.

We've all found students in the 'wrong' class for their level, because 'that's the only day Yuriko can come' and it's a problem when you have to use the compulsory (crap) in-house text and keep on pace according to when the company wantsto unload the next level of crap text. If you have a free hand itcan be funand productive to integrate these strong students into a weaker class to the benefit of all.

By the way if anyone is planning to use the internet cafe opposite Inokashira exit at Kichijoji, avoid machine number two, space bar doesn't work . Sorry for illegibility.

Fion

[Lucy Snow]

[Guest]

[easyasabc]

[Brooks]

well I am in my third year in Japan and my students tend to be familiar with American English, probably because the tapes they listen to in class and the movies they watch (at theaters and on TV) are from the US.

When I worked in Poland I felt like persona non grata. One old fart of a teacher named Maximilian said American English was just slang, which the students found offensive. But in Europe, British English is dominant.

The singer Morrissey said, "We look to Los Angeles for the language we use. London is dead." That is reality, whether we like it or not.

But don`t think I support Pax Americana. Far from it. Bush won`t get my vote next year.

[kamome]

This doesn't need to be about American v British English. I think most people would accept that American English for a variety of reasons is more important than British English to the average Japanse person ( and indeed most of the rest of the world ). Neither is "better" and the same can be said about Australian English and all the other variants.

I think the thread started as a result of the frustration some non-American teachers can feel when Japanese students look at us as though we're some kind of wierdo because we don't use "American" English. When I said we should say ENGlish comes from ENGland it wasn't a slight against other English-speaking countries. It was just a gentle reminder to students that other countries speak English too. Not just America!

[Brooks]

I have to wonder if the problem is the materials the students are given. I find that my students are given a mishmash of British and American words, and one day I was looking at what vocabulary the students had to know for their test. The test was dumb since the students just had to memorize so many words, and some words were (if you looked them up in a dictionary) cited as literary. Some words were old-fashioned and words that I would never utter in speech nor hear, and would .

[dractalks]

As an international teacher for 10 years I have a very mainstreamed and practically nonexistent accent. Many ESL teachers/companies stress prefer this or that. In truth, make an effort to lose your regionalized 'twang' wherever your from. In Asia, so far, more Aussies seem to have a tougher time being understood. Neutralize the drawn out rounded sounds in your speech, enunciate clearly, and tone down the nasalalities.